Introduction
Cardiovascular affections are frequent in COVID-19.
Purpose
The aim of this study was to describe the profile of cardiovascular manifestations in a population of patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Methods
This was a descriptive retrospective study carried out at the center hospitalier universitaire de Libreville on April 1st, 2020 to March 30th, 2021. All the files of patients hospitalized for COVID-19 that were confirmed by PCR and presenting a cardiovascular affection were included. These patients had undergone a complete clinical examination and an electrocardiogram. Doppler echocardiography and/or thoracic CT angiography were performed according to clinical suspicion. The data were processed with SPSS 16.0 software. Quantitative variables are described as median or mean and qualitative variables as a percentage.
Results
Out of the 452 patients admitted for COVID-19 during this period, 51 (11.3%) presented a cardiovascular affection. The mean age was 59.1 ± 13.3 years with a predominance of men (sex ratio 1.4). Cardiovascular risk factors were dominated by high blood pressure (60.7%), obesity (43.1%) and diabetes (19.6%). The most common cardiovascular manifestations were pulmonary embolism (31.3%), arrhythmias (33.3%) and heart failure (21.6%). Acute coronary syndromes were rarer (5.9%). The medians of D dimers and CRP were 3270 microg/L and 60.5 mg/L, respectively. COVID-19-specific pulmonary CT lesions were severe in 19.6% of cases. Non-invasive ventilation was performed in 17.6% of patients. Hospital mortality was 7.8%.
Conclusion
Cardiovascular manifestations are frequent in Libreville for COVID-19 and affect young people. The early diagnostic and management of these affections are essential despite this particular infectious context.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.